The story of Yu the Great controlling the floods is known to everyone.
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history
Yu redirected rivers rather than damming them - the source of the idiom 大禹治水，堵不如疏 ('better to channel than to block'). His father Gun had failed by dam-building. Yu's self-sacrifice (三过家门而不入) is the Confucian template for duty over family.
culture
He is traditionally credited with founding the Xia 夏 dynasty and dividing China into 九州 (Nine Provinces) - the origin of one Chinese name for China itself, 九州.
